Republicans, Democrats split on Brian Williams' fate, poll finds

FILE - This April 4, 2012 file photo shows NBC News' Brian Williams, at the premiere of the HBO original series "Girls," in New York. Williams is currently under suspension as "Nightly News" anchor and managing editor for six months without pay for misleading the public about his experiences covering the Iraq War. Bill O'Reilly, Fox News Channel's prime-time star, is accused of claiming he had reported in a combat zone for CBS News during the 1982 Falklands War when he was more than a thousand miles from the front. (AP Photo/Starpix, Dave Allocca, File)

Photo: Dave Allocca, HOEP

By a small margin, American voters say Brian Williams should be allowed to return to hosting NBC Nightly News, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday.

Forty-two percent support Williams' return to the anchor chair while 35 percent do not. NBC suspended the host for six months in February after he was found to have exaggerated war stories.

Republicans and Democrats are split on Williams' fate. Republicans oppose his return 42 percent to 33 percent, while Democrats support it 52 percent to 28 percent.

The poll shows that challenges to Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's reporting have made less of an impact. Fifty-one percent said they had no opinion, 23 percent said he should stay on air, 11 percent said he should be suspended, and 12 percent said he should be fired.

There was again a partisan divide. Twenty-one percent of Democrats supported O'Reilly's firing compared with 4 percent of Republicans. Eighteen percent of Democrats supported his suspension compared to 8 percent of Republicans. And 11 percent of Democrats said he should stay on air, compared with 30 percent of Republicans.

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'Daily Show'

In the same poll, Tina Fey was the top choice to replace Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's late-night offering, "The Daily Show" out of six possible successors named in the poll, with 19 percent. The second choice was another "Saturday Night Live" alumnus, Dennis Miller, with 16 percent.

According to the Quinnipiac poll, women prefer Fey over Miller 23 to 12 percent, while men prefer Miller to Fey 21 to 15 percent.

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The poll also surveyed American voters' opinions on news networks' trustworthiness. In a head-to-head matchup, Fox got the highest marks with 29 percent, followed by CNN with 22 percent, NBC and CBS tied at 10 percent, ABC at 8 percent, and MSNBC at 7 percent.

The poll reached 1,286 registered voters by phone from Feb. 26-March 2. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.